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-hearted, excitable mother; of her deepening disappointment and premature death.
"Helen kept up with him for a time, for his mother's sake, but unluckily he has put himself beyond the pale now, one way and another. It is too disastrous about this pretty child! What on earth does she see in him?"
"Simply a means of escaping from her home," said Rose--"the situation working out! But who knows whether he hasn't got a wife already? Nobody should trust this young man farther than they can see him."
"It musn't--it can't be allowed!" said Catharine, with energy. And, as she spoke, she seemed to feel again the soft bloom of Hester's young cheek against her own, just as when she had drawn the girl to her, in that instinctive caress. The deep maternity in Catharine had never yet found scope enough in the love of one child.
Then, with a still keener sense of the various difficulties rising along Meynell's path, Flaxman and Rose returned to the anxious discussion of Barron's move and how to meet it. Catharine listened, saying little; and it was presently settled that Flaxman should himself call on Dawes, the colliery manager, that afternoon, and should write strongly to Barron, putting on paper the overwhelming arguments, both practical and ethical, in favour of silence--always supposing there were no further developments.
"Tell me"--said Rose presently, when Flaxman had left the sisters alone--"Mary of course knows nothing of that letter?"
Catharine flushed.
"How could she?" She looked almost haughtily at her sister.
Rose murmured an excuse. "Would it be possible to keep all knowledge from Mary that there was a scandal--of some sort--in circulation, if the thing developed?"
Catharine, holding her head high, thought it would not only be possible, but imperative.
Rose glanced at her uncertainly. Catharine was the only person of whom she had ever been afraid. But at last she took the plunge.
"Catharine!--don't be angry with me--but I think Ma